#TBT: Trudeau and the Queen set pen to patriation

This week, which saw the premiers gathered in Quebec in search of a climate plan, also marks the anniversary of time when la belle province found itself left out in the cold.

Thirty-three years ago this week, Queen Elizabeth signed the Constitution Act of 1982 into effect in Ottawa.

In 1966, Lester B. Pearson was the first to push for ‘patriation’ of the constitution, but his bid failed without Quebec’s support. Pierre Trudeau, after his return to power in 1980, stepped up the pressure, and in the 1980 Quebec referendum promised a new constitutional arrangement if Quebecers would reject sovereignty.

Trudeau and the premiers went to work, but failed to reach consensus. Trudeau’s proposed Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which would form the first section of his proposed constitution, was a sticking point, as most premiers — all but Ontario’s Bill Davis and New Brunswick’s Richard Hatfield — saw it as a violation of provincial jurisdiction.

Trudeau threatened to take the matter to the British Parliament on his own; the Supreme Court then ruled in September 1981 that the federal government could unilaterally patriate the constitution, but that it would require provincial ‘consensus’ — not unanimity.

Negotiations between Trudeau and the premiers began again in earnest in November 1981. The addition of the notwithstanding clause — which would let Parliament and the provinces override the Charter — brought all of the premiers onside, except for Quebec’s René Levesque.

Quebec Premier Rene Levesque attacked the new Canadian constitution as being undemocratic, in an interview with Adrienne Clarkson of the CBC television program Fifth Estate, on April 20th, 1982. CP PHOTO/Arne Glassbourg

Despite howls of betrayal from Quebec, Trudeau went to Britain. U.K. parliamentarians passed the Canada Act in March, which allowed for the replacement of the British North America Act (or the Constitution Act of 1867) and gave Canada’s Parliament total legislative sovereignty. The Queen signed this into law on March 29, 1982.

Almost simultaneously, Parliament in Ottawa passed the Constitution Act of 1982. The Queen flew to Ottawa, and on April 17, 1982, she and Trudeau set up on the lawn of Parliament Hill and signed the act into effect.